If you are interested in a perspective on the inner workings of Mars Hill Church, you need to read this blog post by former Mars Hill Director of the Resurgence, Mike Anderson.
Titled “Hello, My Name is Mike and I’m a Recovering True Believer,” Anderson discusses his roles at Mars Hill and his regrets about them.
Speaking about his platform to speak out about Driscoll and Mars Hill, Anderson wrote:
I spent so much time with him because I was the guy who organized conferences, planned and promoted books, directed the online content, and later worked directly on all of Mark’s projects—I was at the center of all of this and I was proud of helping make it bigger.
I used to joke that my title should be “Minister of Propaganda”.
He wrote about the changes at Mars Hill that helped create what I call Mars Hill in Exile.
The entire previous executive elder board was broken up and a new executive elder board with massively different values, theology, and ecclesiology was brought in. Long-held beliefs about how a church should be run were secretly changed, fear and intimidation were constant, and power was consolidated even more than it had been. Because I was interested in “tower building,” this didn’t bother me. When I left, I was actually an advocate for many of the policies that consolidated power.
Why is he writing?
I’m writing this to clearly tell every one I ever interacted with that I was wrong to be a part of this. Religion and man-made movements are my crack. I want to burn to the ground any bridge that gives me a path back into it.
Anderson does not use the word cult to describe the culture set up by Mars Hill leaders but he does link to an article on how to identify if you are in a cult. He apologizes to women, and gays, and the residents of Seattle.
Warning to true believers: This post could be hazardous to your mindset. In other words, read it.